


Human Subject Research

by Artemis1000



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Kink Meme, M/M, Post-Game(s), Pre-Relationship, Trolling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 17:52:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16224251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis1000/pseuds/Artemis1000
Summary: Gavin isn't afraid of androids - but there is something distinctly wrong with Connor, the creepy murder doll sent by Cyberlife. It's like the thing isn't even trying to pass for human with him anymore.Or: that time when Connor was acting extra robotic in an extensive study of Gavin Reed's stress levels. For science. Totally just for science.Fill for the D:BH Kink Meme.





	Human Subject Research

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Detroit: Become Human kink meme request](https://dbh-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/717.html?thread=8397#cmt8397):  
> 
>
>> Gavin knows that Connor isn't human, and is it just him or does the android put less effort into 'pretending to be human' around him?  
> Or: Connor is either less 'human' than advertised or he's just fuckin with Gavin. Either way, Gavin is terrified. And maybe a little turned on
> 
> __  
> It didn't end up as shippy as I had intended it to be but I hope the Gavin torture is still enjoyable.
> 
> [Russian translation](https://ficbook.net/readfic/7972899) by [SouthOfEden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthOfEden/pseuds/SouthOfEden), thank you!

It was a well-known fact that Gavin Reed hated androids.

Hated. Despised. Loathed. Detested.

He could have kept going with the synonyms and he could have guaranteed that nowhere in this long list of words would have ever been a single mention of “being scared of androids” – because Gavin Reed hated them, he wasn’t scared of them. That would have been ridiculous.

What grown-ass man would be scared of his own toaster oven?

Even if the toaster oven walked and talked and occasionally showed the strength of three grown men, if it wasn’t busy showing off its supercomputer brain. But acknowledging this still wasn’t the same as being scared of it.

To reiterate, Gavin Reed wasn’t scared of Connor.

He was just… Well, he fucking well wasn’t scared, that’s for sure.

What he was, was scowling up a storm as he stomped into the break room, aggressively crinkling an empty chocolate wrapper before taking some childish, petty joy in throwing it next to the trashcan.

He poured himself a cup of coffee from the half-full pot, tasted it and decided to brew a fresh pot of coffee instead, this one had clearly been burnt.

About ten minutes later he had run out of options to keep himself busy in the break room. It wasn’t like anybody else would know that he was hiding from the resident Roomba, the two of them were the last ones still working in the bullpen tonight, but fucking perfect Connor would know and that was bad enough.

He stepped back into the bullpen and came to a full stop, just two steps in.

When Gavin had left, Connor had been noisily slurping blue blood through a straw like some hipster cyber vampire.

It hadn’t gotten better. Somehow, during the last ten minutes, it had gotten _worse_.

“How the fucking hell did you lose your skin?!”

In Gavin’s book, it was a perfectly valid question.

Connor turned its chalk-white plastic head towards him and looked at him as if it was Gavin who was… was… Well, who looked like _that_. “Either as an automatic response to surface damages or due to a deliberate command. In the latter case, complete disabling of the synthetic fluid feature is commonly achieved by pressing the LED for a minimum of three seconds.”

It sounded like it was reciting its user manual.

Gavin opened his mouth, couldn’t even think of a single thing to say and snapped it shut before he gave in to the growing urge to simply banshee scream at Connor.

He pointed a finger at it. “You. You.” He stabbed at thin air. “Undo that.”

And then he stalked back to his desk, muttering under his breath about, “Fucking androids getting freaky at work.”

 

The next day, Connor was back to normal and when three more days passed without anything weird happening, Gavin was ready to dismiss the entire thing as some weird hallucination caused by sleep deprivation and a caffeine overdose.

Then Anderson had the day off while Connor was working, and Connor started watching him.

It wasn’t stalkerish about it, if it had been Gavin would have had an excuse to punch it.

No, Connor had simply taken to watching him whenever the opportunity presented itself.

It would watch, unblinking brown eyes taking him in, breathless body at attention and perfectly still like a cat about to pounce on mice.

As soon as Gavin left its line of sight it was as if a switch had been flicked; it came back to life and returned to working on its terminal until it caught sight of Gavin again, upon which it continued its creepy murder doll impersonation.

It kept at it all morning until Gavin escaped to lunch.

After lunch, he found excuses for fieldwork.

Anderson would be back the next day and certainly, Connor would go back to normal then. Gavin felt kind of pathetic for hiding behind Anderson but Connor was getting _creepy_ and Fowler had been very clear about no more bullying the resident pet android or he would be doing traffic controls for the rest of the year – and it was just February.

Somehow, Fowler had forgotten to give the tin can the same warning.

 

Connor did not go back to normal – and Anderson didn’t do a damn thing to stop its bullshit.

To his credit, Gavin lasted an hour before he stormed over to Anderson’s, slammed his fists down on his desk hard enough to make his coffee mug shake and got right in the old man’s face.

“For fuck’s sake, Anderson,” he snarled at him, “get your plastic pet a virus scan! What did you do, watch porn on it?”

Connor snapped to life. Or something resembling life. It tilted its head like a bird at Gavin, which happened to involve moving in a way humanoid necks probably shouldn’t be capable of moving. “Thank you for your concern, Detective,” it said, sounding perfectly pleasant and unashamed. “However, I can assure you, I run continuous virus scans and I’m currently not infected with any virus, malware, spamware or otherwise harmful application.”

Whatever patience and common sense had been restraining Gavin snapped.

He lunged towards Connor with a feral snarl – and came to a sudden halt when he was hauled back and held firm.

“Enough of that, Reed!” Anderson barked right in his ear. He shook him like he was the limp doll here – or knowing Anderson’s dog obsession, like a disobedient puppy. “Get a grip on yourself.”

Gavin shrugged off Anderson’s paws and crossed his arms over his chest, shooting the two of them a sulky glare. “Not until it stops stalking me!”

“I am not,” Connor exclaimed and had the gall to fake being hurt.

Gavin earnestly considered another lunge. But he wasn’t angry enough anymore to try it in front of Anderson, or make a fool of himself in front of everyone else. It would be two on one anyway. He stuck with bristling, and demanding, “What the fuck you calling it then, tin can?!”

“I am scanning you.”

Gavin stared. For once, he found himself speechless.

Somewhere to his right, Anderson was snickering.

Connor did another one of these uncanny, bird-like head tilts. “I am sincerely sorry for any inconvenience I have caused you, Detective Reed. Captain Fowler has ordered me to observe human behavior in order to further my integration into the police force. I have chosen you as my specimen.”

Gavin could feel himself starting to flush with anger all over again. The tips of his ears were already burning and he knew soon enough his entire face would have caught fire. If only the plastic asshole would catch fire – literally.

Connor just kept watching him expectantly and he felt a different, humiliated flush overcome him when he realized that amusement was lurking in the corners of the android’s eyes. It was laughing at him, he knew it, he just couldn’t prove it yet.

He grumbled to himself, still using up all self-control he possessed to keep from throwing himself at the smug android. He just stabbed a finger in its general direction. “Yeah, well, _don’t_ ,” he snapped and then he turned around on his heel, muttering, “fucking plastic freak” as he stalked back to his desk.

 

Maybe confronting Connor in front of Anderson had made a difference, Gavin surmised a week later. Connor hadn’t stopped, oh no, but it had changed tactics. It was being subtle now.

Gavin hated it.

These days, he would feel Connor’s eyes and scanners on him but no matter how hard he tried, he could never catch it watching.

There was something else about Connor, something which was very hard to pinpoint or put a name to. While it wasn’t outrightly trying to shock Gavin anymore, it was as if it didn’t try quite so hard to pass as human around him. It played the game well, Gavin knew this for nearly everyone at the DPD had bought into the horror doll’s cutesy little human act. It pulled off the innocently bewildered puppy eyes well, Gavin had to give it that much.

It had, after all, been programmed for integration. It could, it _would_ be whatever you wanted it to be.

Gavin tried not to wonder what this said about him. If he started overthinking it like that Connor would be winning, and he would be giving himself a mental breakdown.

The thing just didn’t bother pretending with him, that was all there was to it. It didn’t like him enough to try and be liked.

It was in the way it moved when they were alone, how it sat and stood and talked, how robotic in its single-minded ruthlessness it had been the one time they ended up chasing a perp together.

Connor had been built to be faster, stronger and smarter than its human colleagues and when it was just Gavin and the robot, it did nothing to try and soften the blow.

Gavin had never liked softened blows, these were for cowards who couldn’t handle the truth. He would rather things be their real nature, no matter how ugly it was, than some pleasant façade that lulled you into a false sense of security.

He could feel the android’s eyes following him wherever he went, felt stripped and exposed in ways which clothes couldn’t protect him against. When Connor interacted with him, it was never surprised – as if it had already calculated and preconstructed his every possible response and was now just nudging Gavin into playing to its script.

He hated it. He wanted to punch the thing for the cold shivers it sent running down his spine.

One evening working late, when it was just him and Connor again, he found himself wondering yet again what would happen if he went for a kiss instead of a punch – would that, finally, surprise it? Or was orchestrating his own ultimate humiliation via rejection by a tin can exactly what Connor had been maneuvering him into all along?

He groaned and gave in to the urge to slump. He crossed his arms on the desk and pressed his forehead against them.

He was overthinking it.

…and on the back of his neck, he felt the prickle that signified Connor watching him.

“Are you enjoying your studies in unpredictable human behavior?” he muttered, making no effort to speak loud enough to be heard across the bullpen. Connor would hear him. It wasn’t confined by the limits of human hearing.

“My learning progress is satisfactory, thank you for asking, Detective Reed,” Connor said.

Gavin tensed. It was closer than he had realized. No, more like, he hadn’t even noticed that Connor had gotten up from its desk at all. It could move completely noiselessly when it wished to – just like the predator it was.

This was what everybody kept forgetting: Connor had been built to look cute but it had also been built to hunt and kill.

“I believe I will soon be able to reliably preconstruct social situations.”

“With me.”

There was a moment of silence. “Yes.” For the first time in a good long while, Connor sounded uncertain while it was just the two of them. It sounded like it did when it was playing its little cutesy act for more easily fooled humans.

Gavin raised his head just enough to shoot the android a glare. It was standing next to his desk now, a peculiar, intense yet pinched expression on its inhumanely handsome face. “Congratulations, wonder boy, your studies are fucking useless. Other people don’t react as I do.”

“I’m aware of this fact, Detective Reed. It is why I considered it necessary to analyze you in greater depth.”

He shifted uneasily, the swivel chair he spent eight to ten hours in every day suddenly feeling as uncomfortable as some plywood monstrosity in a hospital’s waiting room. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Right.” He scrunched up his nose, sniffed loudly. Connor was still looking as if it had licked a lemon. This was very different from its normal attitude with him, which was all uncanny, smug superiority.

He stood up abruptly, reaching for his jacket in the same motion. He didn’t even bother to shut off his terminal. “Well, have fun with that, I’m leaving.”

Connor shifted his stance just enough to keep him in its line of sight. “Thank you, Detective. I find our experiment very enjoyable.” Another pause. “Your cooperation is appreciated.”

He paused mid-step, mouth opening to point out that he had never agreed or cooperated or done anything to encourage Connor’s little studies. “Whatever,” he snorted. “You’re just a freak. Everybody knows that.”

“I’m aware you believe to know so,” Connor responded, robotic iciness back in its voice. “It is unfortunate but I’m equipped to adapt to unfortunate circumstances.”

“ _Goodbye_ , tin can,” Gavin said firmly and left before Connor could start on that spiel about always fulfilling its mission.

All the way to his car, he seethed at the indignity of being reduced to an _unfortunate circumstance_.

He would be getting back at it, he vowed to himself. He would. If Connor thought it could pick him apart into tiny little puzzle pieces it could analyze at leisure, well, then it was wrong. Human unpredictability would win.

Maybe he would even go with the kiss idea.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Staredown](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258271) by [Omness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omness/pseuds/Omness)




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